The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy—Page 23

Special thanks go out to long-time supporters Milena P. (who made their 2nd generous donation to The Young Protectors!), Lauren P. (who made their 3rd generous donation to The Young Protectors!) & Vanessa B. (who made their 4th generous donation to The Young Protectors!) and a warm welcome and grateful bow go out to new supporter Renee N. for their generous donations over the last week! You all rock!

Meanwhile, The Young Protectors page over at TV Tropes continues to be added to. With links to Affably Evil and Type I Anti-Villain, I’m really enjoying seeing how folks are perceiving The Annihilator. (And anything that introduces me to cool new Tropes pages is always appreciated!) I wonder how the perception of Anni will develop as y’all get to know him better in the upcoming chapters.

Finally, I have a request. I’ve been trying to get in contact with Artifice commenters Tharsonius, Hisoka Kurosaki, Vincent, J, Rors Lam, Enkidu, Haley Pierce & Lance Gilroy. If any of y’all know them on the Disqus space, could you please ask them to reach out to me? Thanks!

EDIT 7/7/12 3:23 PM EST: DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! Thanks to your amazing generosity, the donation target has just been reached. That means that in addition to the regular update next Saturday (page 25!), there will be a bonus update this Wednesday (page 24!)!! Thank you all so much! You all ROCK!

If you particularly enjoy any of these pages and use Facebook, please click the Like button on that page. It’s useful to know what’s working and it helps me get the word out!

Is it just me or does Adam have the uncanny ability to visually tell a story solely with the characters’ eyes?

YangYueLan

I love you, and this page. I am still laughing out loud to my self. So glad my room mates cant here me, they would think I am nuttyer than I am. 😀

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Hehe. I’m glad you liked the update!

melinda stumpf

wow i love him even more now. best villain ever

Avengelyne

The man has a point…

CommodoreZelda

I love how Kyle seems to care so much what The Annihilator thinks when they’re supposed to be enemies… and The Annihilator is just so jovial about it all. Freaking love him. <3

http://www.facebook.com/jay.demetrick Jay Demetrick

Alex, on TV Tropes they should add “Visual Pun” or “Stealth Pun” as Kyle could be considered literally a… ahem… “flaming faggot”. 😉

Oh well done on the new page! Annihilator is just so damn FUN! And sexy…

VanQuinn

Or “Flame-boyantly Gay”.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Hey Jay!

I’m glad you liked the new page!

As for “flaming faggot”, if there’s a pun there it didn’t come from me. When coming up with his powers, I never connected the term “flaming” in the flamboyant sense with Kyle in my mind and it still rings to me like a disconnect when I hear it. But I know many other readers have made that connection in the comments, so you are certainly not alone in enjoying that “pun.”

http://cathcer1984.dreamwidth.org/ Cathcer

Interesting tactic there… now will Kyle follow or decide to be the most loved Super Hero on the planet, while having clandestine sexytimes with the Supervillain?

Pablo Cuervo

I can relate to him. Since I was always told by millions of people that no matter what, I was going to be evil just for being gay and that I was going to burn in hell, I thought “what the heck, let’s be evil FOR REAL”. Of course my idea of being evil is not the same as the idea those millions have, and I suppose it is the same with Annihilator.

http://twitter.com/RandyRandii Randi Wong

Oh my god. Annihilator’s so cute and amazing and hot. I want to see him with Kyle more and more.<3 Naked snuggling soon, right? …Right? D:

Larne

I really love this comic :3 … and Anni. He is just amazing and definitly one of the best villians ever. And I like his awesome point of view.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Yay! Glad you’re enjoying the comic, Larne!

Becky

First panel. I love it so much!

Feared supervillan or not, The Annihilator has a pretty good sense of humor.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UY6MFIQ4LQ3HPB5HGWNERIAKFU Noah

that first panel is absolute WIN

StarrySkyDancer

That Laugh XD so freaking cheesy! 😛

http://twitter.com/balisane Sola Balisane

This makes perfect sense and is excellent advice for life. If something is harming and limiting you, go out and become bigger than that thing. Then you will encompass it, instead of it encompassing you.

Mwa ha ha. [dies.]

http://twitter.com/ileandrayoung Ileandra Young

LOL! I love this guy… totally love him to bits. Mwa ha ha!

Sequinn

That’s it. After that last comment, I’m firmly ensconced on ‘Team Anni’.

Midwestmutt

It is well that super powers don’t exist here for there would be a lot of pissed-off, gay supervillains striking back at a scornful world.

Midwestmutt

Hell, even the gay superheroes would not be able to resist taking a shot or two. It will be interesting to watch Kyle work his way through this.

I love how the story’s really driven home the point to never judge a book by its cover, both in Hottie McRed’s world and in ours. Just look at the comments for past pages judging the Mwahaha-lator before he even had a chance to talk about himself and who he really is. People just saw what they wanted to see, not who the characters really are, and jumped to conclusions. I think Alex did a good job here demonstrating how important it is – for all people, regardless of sexual orientation – to not do that.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=591482984 Deejay Mumin

Brilliant! I love just how puzzled/confused Kyle looks in panel two. And Anni’s expression in panel six is just genius!

And yes, even supervillians can be nice people too!

Jen Roberts

And now it is time to indulge in some EVIL LAUGHTER!

Okay, this page is just wonderful.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

I’m glad you liked it, Jen!

sonartoo

i really want this to be a cannon couple… and for him to go a little villian. lol

xLizardx

The final line is genius. 😀

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Thank you.

http://kittymayhem.livejournal.com/ KittyMayhem

I LOVE this page.

I love the last few pages, but I haven’t commented in a while due to school…:P Art projects and paint…Acrylic is forgiving.

First off, Annihilator is evil in ways that make me want to be bad. I mean, not only did he get a kiss, but he got to make this kid squirm for kicks by exploiting his weakness and then decided NOT to use it for the hell of it. Manipulation 101 is in session! *taking notes*

I really like how that last line makes you think. It’s like a stamp on your brain that translates into “People don’t care about little things if you’re doing BIGGER things.” That’s so true and I totally appreciate that. Excellent as always. Bonus points for the naivety on Kyle’s part. It makes him so cute. You’ll learn Kyle…you’ll learn. Take notes!

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the comic, KittyMayhem. Thank you for the thoughtful comment!

Dex X.

Rofl. Well that’s definitely one way to do it. xD I love saturdays.

dramadiva44

I’m in love! Kyle is so adorable and Anni is so sweet to him. I’m having visions of them teaming up to fight the evil forces of homophobia together!

http://twitter.com/icraveyaoi icraveyaoi

So perfect! Oh my god I am crying with laughter!

http://www.facebook.com/camilleathome Camille Martin

First comment on here. LOVE your comics! These two make me smile like crazy. Just to mention my husband has a huge age gap with me too so some of the whole you’ll learn in time stuff touches home XD. Except Im a girl in a relationship with a guy but oh well lol. My husband is turning 50 this year and I just turned 25. I want to see these guys together! One of those truly complicated relationships with one being an anarchist and one being a good guy XD. And I dont know but I never considered an anarchist to automatically equal evil to the core. A lot of the anarchist characters ive read about always seem to be the fun to hate and fun to love bad characters. I love bad characters that have their sympathetic side to them.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Howdy Camille! I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comics! (And I also love bad characters that have a sympathetic side to them.)

http://www.facebook.com/camilleathome Camille Martin

I know it sounds geeky but we play gurps and dungeons and dragons and our dungeon master always has bad guys like that. You dont know wether you want your character to marry the guy or kill em XD. Love it!. Cant wait to see more of Ani!

http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hammer.14 Jonathan Hammer

This page made my day…XD

http://twitter.com/_3_LEMONed_3_ j.azzeh ♺

lol duh…. that last panel…was obvious

Chris Woodworth

…I actually kind of have to respect that sort of outlook. XD

http://twitter.com/BroughtBackCat Cat Bushnell

He makes a very valid point, you know… And taking it out of a villain context: as long as you are happy with who you are as a person, why should you care about one aspect of yourself?

StrawberryLime

I’m certainly interested to see what his motivation for going super villain was. Or, like, what exactly makes him so villainous, because TBH, he’s pretty awesome. He’s like that grandfather-ly guy who was never affectionate but always taught you through the school of hard knocks. You resent it at the time but then look back later to go ‘damn he was awesome.’ :3

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ODTYRNLPDTIZWUVMJBCDAFY27E DivaLady

This is terribly amusing to me, because, yeah, once you become a huge, powerful villain, being gay really isn’t a thing people are gonna harp on you about. XD

Rex Justrex

Of course now “capturing the young superhero and sending him to certain doom” takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?

And since he’s the most powerful and feared super villain on the planet, what was he doing in a dingy alley behind a gay bar?

Waiting for Kyle?

Is a male cougar called a panther?

Anni has some definite panther-esque qualities about him for sure.

nebi_lan

Hahahahha oh my god i’m loving this man <3. Yes, indeed being the most feared supervillain has a lot of good stuff <3 and some plus like being bad and teasing & kissing young boy.

http://profile.yahoo.com/MLXG7BTHPOTJJCCNYE4BDAADQA Samantha

I love Saturdays. <3 Anni = Pure Win

QuantumKid

“AWWWWW YEAH” face in the first panel, lol.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KNBCTG2TULCHY4DQISWB7HUNRQ caddy

This episode brought back some bitter feelings from a time when I was just learning who I was and trying to deal with it…also hiding it from my family because none of them were open minded enough to accept it…with the exception of my Mother…who once asked me “Whatever happened to that person you were writing to in Florida?” Rather than open old wounds and grab a can of salt….I just said we drifted apart. The truth was that he was accidentally killed and I had to deal with that on my own….all in all I am at peace with myself now…as for that person I was writing to in Florida…still an open wound…even 27 years later.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Hey caddy,

While I am glad to hear that you’re at peace with yourself, I’m sorry to hear that this scene brought up some bad memories for you and I’m truly sorry about your loss. I very much hope that there are supportive people in your life now whom you can talk to about what happened.

fujoshifanatic

Finally got back here–it’s been a hell of a couple of weeks–and I find last week’s awesome page, this week’s awesome page, and (I think) another awesome bonus page coming up! Yay!

Anni is shaping up to be my favorite anarchist/supervillain ever! Not only was he able to give Kyle an important life lesson about making ASSumptions, he also gave him a very important and entertaining lesson on the art of kissing while still getting his naughty kicks in to boot. Now that’s what I call super multitasking. ;-P

It will be very fun to see how their relationship develops from here. Hopefully it will involve many more important (and entertaining!) lessons for Kyle, and Anni too!

Awesome job as always Alex! 😀

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Thank you very much, fujoshifanatic! I’m glad you’re enjoying the comic. And I hope that the next few weeks are a lot easier for you! 😀

http://www.facebook.com/minaki.tsukikuro 月黒満

I absolutely love this webcomic! And I loved Artifice, and all the comics that came with signing up! (Gah, I can’t remember their names DX) I apologise for not commenting until now (not really sure why I didn’t…) but I’d like to let everyone involved in making this know that they are awesome in every way, and that Kyle’s face in the second panel is the best face I have ever seen anywhere! XD I’m beyond broke, or else I would give the whole $400 every week myself, if that shows how much I love this. I’m so glad Anni is turning kinda nicer (and he showed his weak side!). I never thought I’d want a 17-year-old to be with someone who looks as old as Anni, but I do, because they are both just awesome! Alright, I’m done obsessing, sorry for that. But seriously, everyone, EVERYONE involved in making this is absolutely epic, and everyone who donates proves that there are still people with good taste in this world. ~Mitsuru Tsukikuro

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Thank you, Mitsuru! I’m really glad to hear you’re enjoying the comics! And I appreciate you taking the time to let us all know! 😀

El Allen

Yay! Oh man, I LOVE ANNI. So cool. So evil. *swoon*

On another note, I have been lurking here for a while and just wanted to tell you that I loved Artifice. Loved it. You and your artist buddies are just radsauce.

I do hope The Silver Fox will continue to burst into maniacal laughter randomly throughout the series, because that first panel is amazing. Then he goes on to be sweetly supportive except the only coming out advice he can give is “Be so evil it over shadows minor details like sexual preference.” I want to know more about this world though. Is it just our world, or is it homophobic enough to justify both Kyle’s fear and the Annihalator’s turn to super villainy? Is Anni sort of a misunderstood but largely reasonable guy, or is he waaaaay crazier than he’s appeared thus far? Also what passes for Super Villain in this universe, is he murdering hundreds of people for no reason like the Joker, or is he largely ray guns and bank jobs in between white collar crime a la Lex Luthor, or is he on some sort of semi-understandable crusade like Magneto?

Basically, I want to know more things!

http://twitter.com/SoupyTwist SoupyTwist

Also, the Annihilator’s belt buckle looks like a little frowny face.

One_Traveller

I’m sure we could all think of a few things that would make his belt buckle happy again;)

Lawenta Elar

XDDDDDDD

Okay, pup. Don’t listen to him. There are other, less extreme ways to accept your own sexuality, I promise.

Still, love that point. XD

Friend or foe, Anni is going to be a very entertaining character!

Thank you for sharing yet another engaging story, Alex.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

You’re very welcome, Lawenta. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it.

Hinata Akari

Hi there. My name is Akari. I’ve been viewing your work for a while now (I’m a HUGE fan of Artifice!), but I’ve never really commented until now. But I think I’ve finally found a place where I fit in! And I must say, this new comic is amazing! I love the artwork and the suspense that comes with every page! I can’t wait for the next extra update on Wednesday! Trust me, if I had a well-paying job, I would donate as much as possible, but sadly, I don’t. ^_^;; Please keep up the good work! Your fans will be rooting for you!

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Thank you, Akari! I’m really glad you’ve been enjoying the comics! We’ll try our best to keep up the good work! 😀

Hinata Akari

No problem! You’re very talented in what you do, and I think that’s great! I’m a mangaka here in Japan….well, ALMOST a mangaka. ^_^;; My work hasn’t been very popular with too many publishers, and I often get rejected, but I’ll keep trying! :3 Also, I can’t wait for Saturday!!!

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Well, thank you again. It’s always especially flattering to get props from another creator. Good luck with your work as well! 😀

Hinata Akari

Thanks so much! Now, off to finish that last page…..

Feverfew_M

Ha, I’m sure it didn’t matter much anymore. But how does being universally feared affect the chances of getting laid? 😀

On a more serious note I now ask myself if Anni ((thought he)) had to deal all alone with “the gay thing” or if someone let him down badly.

I can’t pin point it but there’s something that makes me absolutely adore this comic xD I suspect it might be the execution of the dialog; the rhythm, timing and flow of the words. Everything seems to fit perfectly together. (Yes I’m nerding out about language, sue me.) Of course the beautifully done artwork contributes greatly to the enjoyment.

I also love the characters we’ve seen. Neither of them are stereo-typical to their character roles. Annihilator has a nice compassionate side and his naughty bad side; and you can see that he’s not bad just to be bad; he really believes in his actions and what he does. Kyle’s no Gary-Stu either like a lot of characters. He made a mistake in judging someone immediately, and he’s insecure about himself. I love how real they are.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Glad to hear you’re liking The Young Protectors!

(And thank you for the very kind words about the dialogue and characterization, Tanaya. That means a a lot to me. )

espoirepourmesreves

Of course! Anyone can get awesome artists; but for something to be a full comic, it needs not only great artwork (and maybe some smut xD) but also solid work from the writer in both dialog and character development. That’s what I love about this comic; it’s way above what is usually seen in both departments. Both the art and the writing are so wonderful and original and it really shows through the final product! 😀 (Made a discus account so this is still me xD) And yeah. Expect me to nerd out about the dialog in the future; there are few things I love more than good writing!

Coyote Osborne

That’s a great last panel.

Ryn

last panel = <3

hnn, the most badass SV takes the time to offer the hero life advice? Wat'cha up to mister Supervillan?

http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.grove.927 Elizabeth Grove

I’ve been reading this since it first started, but up until now, I haven’t known entirely what to say. Everything is done marvelously well, and I’m just as impressed with The Young Protectors as I was with Artifice.

This page actually makes me smile on a number of levels:

First, the delicious and ridiculous little laugh The Annihilator did in panel one. I mean, come on – it’s obvious he’s just jerking the kid’s chain at this point. Besides, it’s silly! Who heard of a (and this is going to sound derpy) real supervillain laughing, “Mwa ha ha!”? He’s either making fun of the stereotypical laugh, or just trying to make the kid smile. Maybe both. I dunno.

Second, the general feel for The Annihilator since the beginning has kind of been… well, a raging dick, if you will pardon the double entendre. He’s been using the kid’s own insecurities against him for amusement, as well as his own pleasure. This softening of character is rather sweet, if a bit startling, but it makes sense as a whole. It’s nice to see a deeper connection form than “You’re questioning, I’m gay, I’m TOTALLY going to take advantage of this.”

Lastly, it’s nice to see a more human side to superheroes/villains. It’s like reading Spiderman without all the brain-melting puns! 😀

Thank you once again, Alex. Your work is quite fantastic.

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/ Alex Woolfson

Howdy Elizabeth!

Yep, I think you have a good sense of what The Annihilator was up to with that laugh.

And you’re very welcome! I’m very happy to hear you’ve been enjoying the new comic. Thank you for the kind words!

Srsly thats how I gonna solve my problems in the future! If people found out any secrets of mine, I just become a supervillain and everything will be OK! :DDDDDDDD

http://www.facebook.com/fiona.moyler Fiona Moyler

I’ve read and re-read this comic since I discovered it about a week or two ago, and that mwa ha ha is the best thing ever! It tickled me that Annihilator is an anarchist, but nothing beats this evil laugh, and what he’s laughing about!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002171810349 Lara Idiart

“I became the most dangerous and feared supervillian on the planet..” jaja, go say him faggot

DarkFeanix21

Evil villain laughs are the best. And also, I approve of Mr. The Annihilator’s method of dealing with “the gay thing”. Clever man.